Now that I had the engine assembled it was time to tend to the engine compartment and engine accesories before installation.
First thing I noticed about the truck, even before I bought it, was that the fan clutch was seized up. I haven't ever seen one completely seized like this one. With the engine off you could grab the fan with your hand and turn the engine over.
So, I cleaned up and powdercoated the fan.
New Heavy Duty Hayden fan clutch.
The knock sensor was broken for some reason so I had to get a new one. Rockauto takes a lot of the pain out of buying Delco quality parts.
I cleaned and powdercoated the stock intake manifold. Good thing I spent some time on it, the EGR passages were completely clogged with carbon. Various bits cleaned up and installed...
I like to use teflon paste rather than teflon tape.
These trucks have a very brittle quick connect for the heater hose on the back of the manifold which seem the break regularly and cause heartache so I changed over to the better aftermarket replacement. No better time than right now rather the beside the road sometime.
These are the only thermostat gaskets to buy. They're multi layer and reuseable many times. No sealer, no silicone, no mess, no leaks. Since I started using these some years ago I have never had an issue with leaky thermostat housings.
New thermostat.
I always drill little bleed holes in my thermostats. It alleviates getting air locks when filling with coolant.
Always use anti-seize on your thermostat bolts. It avoids future heartaches. How many threads have we seen on here from guys with broken off thermostat housing bolts ? A ton, that's how many.
EGR valve hardware.
A note here. My thermostat housing was somewhat heavily pitted on the bottom flange and I didn't want to pony up the cash for a new one so I powdercoated it heavily, then filed it flat, using the powdercoat as filler for the pits. Then one final finish coat of powdercoat.
That heater hose fitting I was talking about earlier. It comes with sealant on the threads, just open it up and screw it in place.
